On a shelf in many Lake of Bays cottages, usually somewhere between the board games and the bird guide, sits a book that rarely gets talked about. Its cover is faded. Its spine is cracked. Its pages are swollen from decades of damp summers.
It is the guest book. And if you sit down with one on a quiet fall afternoon, it will tell you more about a family than any photo album.
In my work I am invited into a great many cottages. Over the years I have learned to notice the guest book and, when the owners are willing, to ask about it. The stories that come out of those conversations have taught me a great deal about why people love this lake.
A Record of Ordinary Days
What strikes me most about guest books is how ordinary most of the entries are. Nobody writes about the price of the property or the square footage. They write about the weather, the fish, the food and the people.
The kinds of entries you find again and again go something like this:Rained all weekend, played 400 games of euchre, Dad still lost.
First swim of the season, May 24, water freezing, worth it.
Saw a moose on the road in, nobody believes us.
Thank you for a perfect week, we’ll be back.
Read a few hundred of those and something becomes clear. A cottage is not remembered for its features. It is remembered for the small, repeated pleasures that happen there year after year.
First swim of the season, May 24, water freezing, worth it.
Saw a moose on the road in, nobody believes us.
Thank you for a perfect week, we’ll be back.
Read a few hundred of those and something becomes clear. A cottage is not remembered for its features. It is remembered for the small, repeated pleasures that happen there year after year.
Time Measured in Summers
Flip through an older guest book and you can watch a family grow. A couple’s names appear on their first visit together. A few years later a third name shows up, written in a parent’s hand with a note about the baby’s first swim. Later still, that same child writes their own name in careful, oversized letters.Then, eventually, the handwriting changes again. The child is a teenager who brings a friend. A university student who comes up with roommates. An adult who arrives with a partner and, one summer, a baby of their own.
There is also the harder side. Names that appear every August for thirty years and then stop. A final entry from a grandparent, a little shakier than the ones before it. Families have told me those pages are among the most precious things they own.
I think that is why guest books matter so much. They measure time the way cottage families actually experience it, not in years but in summers.
Most of the names in those books don’t belong to the owners. They belong to friends, neighbours, in-laws, co-workers, children’s friends and visitors from far away. A Lake of Bays cottage is often the setting for someone else’s best weekend of the year.
That generosity is part of the spirit of this lake. It shows up in the neighbour who lends a boat, the family down the bay who hosts the regatta and the people who leave a pie on the porch when someone new moves in. The guest book is simply where it gets written down.
There is also the harder side. Names that appear every August for thirty years and then stop. A final entry from a grandparent, a little shakier than the ones before it. Families have told me those pages are among the most precious things they own.
I think that is why guest books matter so much. They measure time the way cottage families actually experience it, not in years but in summers.
The Cottage as a Gathering Place
The guest book also reminds us of something easy to forget: a cottage has always been a generous place.Most of the names in those books don’t belong to the owners. They belong to friends, neighbours, in-laws, co-workers, children’s friends and visitors from far away. A Lake of Bays cottage is often the setting for someone else’s best weekend of the year.
That generosity is part of the spirit of this lake. It shows up in the neighbour who lends a boat, the family down the bay who hosts the regatta and the people who leave a pie on the porch when someone new moves in. The guest book is simply where it gets written down.
If You Don’t Have a Guest Book, Start One
If your cottage doesn’t have a guest book, this fall is a perfect time to start one. It doesn’t need to be fancy. A good-quality hardcover notebook will last decades if it’s kept dry.A few tips from families who have kept them well:
Leave it somewhere obvious, with a pen tied to it, so guests don’t have to hunt for it.
Write the first entry yourself so visitors know the tone. Something simple: who you are, the date and one hope for the place.
Ask guests to include the date, the weather and one thing they’ll remember.
Encourage children to draw. Their pictures are often the pages people treasure most.
Store the book in a sealed plastic bin over the winter to protect it from damp and mice.
Some families also keep a page at the back for practical notes: when the dock was rebuilt, when the roof was done, the year the ice went out early. Over time that becomes a surprisingly useful history of the property.
A simple step is to photograph or scan every page. Your phone is perfectly adequate for this. Store a copy in the cloud and share it with the rest of the family. It takes an afternoon and it means a burst pipe or a leaking roof can never erase those memories.
Some families take it further and turn the scans into a printed book for each household. I have seen these given as gifts at milestone birthdays and family reunions and they are always received with tears and laughter in equal measure.
That said, one of the loveliest gestures I’ve seen at a closing came from sellers who left a brand-new guest book on the kitchen table for the buyers. On the first page they had written a short welcome, a few tips about the property and a wish that the new family would love the place as much as they had.
The buyers told me later that note set the tone for their first summer. It made them feel they were joining a story rather than starting from nothing. I have suggested the idea to many sellers since and nearly all of them have loved it.
It is a small thing. It costs almost nothing. But it reflects something I care about deeply in this work: real estate is about people as much as property and the way we hand a place over matters.
I suspect you will find that the things your family values most have very little to do with the building itself. They have to do with time together, with the lake, with the friends who came back year after year and with the small rituals that made each summer feel like home. Those are worth protecting.
Write the first entry yourself so visitors know the tone. Something simple: who you are, the date and one hope for the place.
Ask guests to include the date, the weather and one thing they’ll remember.
Encourage children to draw. Their pictures are often the pages people treasure most.
Store the book in a sealed plastic bin over the winter to protect it from damp and mice.
Some families also keep a page at the back for practical notes: when the dock was rebuilt, when the roof was done, the year the ice went out early. Over time that becomes a surprisingly useful history of the property.
Protecting the Books You Already Have
If you have an older guest book, consider giving it a little care. Paper and ink fade, especially in a building that freezes and thaws every year.A simple step is to photograph or scan every page. Your phone is perfectly adequate for this. Store a copy in the cloud and share it with the rest of the family. It takes an afternoon and it means a burst pipe or a leaking roof can never erase those memories.
Some families take it further and turn the scans into a printed book for each household. I have seen these given as gifts at milestone birthdays and family reunions and they are always received with tears and laughter in equal measure.
When the Cottage Changes Hands
I am sometimes asked what happens to the guest book when a cottage is sold. My answer is simple: it belongs to the family. It should go home with you.That said, one of the loveliest gestures I’ve seen at a closing came from sellers who left a brand-new guest book on the kitchen table for the buyers. On the first page they had written a short welcome, a few tips about the property and a wish that the new family would love the place as much as they had.
The buyers told me later that note set the tone for their first summer. It made them feel they were joining a story rather than starting from nothing. I have suggested the idea to many sellers since and nearly all of them have loved it.
It is a small thing. It costs almost nothing. But it reflects something I care about deeply in this work: real estate is about people as much as property and the way we hand a place over matters.
What Your Guest Book Says About You
If you have a few quiet hours this fall, take the guest book down from the shelf and read it from the beginning. Notice who was there. Notice what they wrote about. Notice what they didn’t.I suspect you will find that the things your family values most have very little to do with the building itself. They have to do with time together, with the lake, with the friends who came back year after year and with the small rituals that made each summer feel like home. Those are worth protecting.
If you’re thinking about the future of your own cottage, I’m always happy to have an unhurried conversation, whenever the time is right. You can reach me at 705-571-2118.